(HASTINGS) A busker, Dean Langley, set up shop outside the Anchor pub in Hastings and started to play “Wonderwall” by Oasis. He then played “American Pie” by Don Maclean.

Then he played Wonderwall again. Then American Pie, then Wonderwall. After two hours, the landlord of the pub approached Mr Langley and pleaded with him either to stop playing or to learn a third song. Mr Langley then became abusive and was arrested.

Is there anyone who can read this without feeling passionate sympathy with the pub landlord? When General Noriega took refuge in the Holy See’s embassy in Panama in 1989, the American army bombarded him with non-stop repetition of terrible old rock records. It has been reported that a torture technique in Guantanamo Bay involved playing Barney the purple dinosaur’s song “I Love You And You Love Me” for more than 24 hours without a break. Truly, the repetition of even the most innocuous song eventually becomes laden with horror.

Curiously, in 2009 a pair of buskers in Moseley, Birmingham, were given an Asbo when it became apparent that they, too, only knew two songs. Even more curiously, one of those songs was also “Wonderwall”. What is it about this moany dirge that exerts such a pull on buskers?